Something needs to change after his untimely death

After the shocking and untimely death of Gary Speed, the footballing world was reminded just how precious life can be, and just how bigger outpouring of grief can come from collective hurt.

Since Speed’s death, his family and close friends have failed to articulate both the pain this has caused them and how to make any sense of what happened. Robbie Savage simply asked ‘Why, Why, Why?’ Leaving the question of exactly what drove Speed to commit suicide and leave both a family and public who adored him so much.

The simple answer seems to be that he suffered from depression and finally snapped, yet his wife and friends say there was no evidence of such a thing. The mind it seems is a fragile thing, and no one can really know the complex nature of our inner most thoughts and feelings.

On paper it seemed Speed had it all to live for – having a successful playing career and now revitalising the Wales national side, not to mention being stable financially and a family who adored him. Yet sufferers from Mental Illness will know that everything can seemingly be fine, yet a dark cloud follows you around.

German keeper Robert Enke has been another high profile casualty of depression in football, and as with Speed took his own life due to the illness, yet that was two years ago and seemingly very little has been done since then to raise the issue of mental illness in football.

It appears to be one of the very last taboos in the game, and following Speed’s death the PFA sent out booklets to ex professionals on how to spot and deal with the illness. Yet current players also suffer from the disease and feel the need to keep it under wraps – is it because football views mental health in a different way to physical illness?